Easier Said Than Done

About

The Southern River Band are proud torchbearers for loud, dirty, sweaty rock ’n’ roll, a sound and attitude best captured in the boogie-woogie, AC/DC-meets-The-Georgia-Satellites stomp of “Bad Luck Baby, Bye Bye.” “If I wanted to be a businessman/I’d be sucking corporate dick in the city,” sings vocalist/guitarist Callum Kramer. Later, he add, “If I gave one shit about the radio/I’d be playing indie pop in Melbourne.” It’s a sound to which the quartet have stayed true since forming in the Perth suburb of Thornlie in 2013, with songs such as “Suits Me Just Fine” and “One of These Nights (I’ll Be Gone)” stretching back to those formative day. “I’ve always been true to what we’re doing, and I haven’t really changed too much,” Kramer tells Apple Music. Not that there isn’t depth to their fifth album, with “It’s What It’s” and “One of These Nights (I’ll Be Gone)” displaying a lyrical sensitivity and vulnerability that adheres to Kramer’s desire to take the listener on a journey. “It’s the emotional rollercoaster of life,” he offers of the album’s theme, before catching himself. “That sounds a bit wanky, doesn’t it?” Key to capturing the band’s raw energy was their decision to work with acclaimed producer Nick DiDia (Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen, Rage Against the Machine), who set about capturing the four-piece playing together in the same room. “When we rocked up on the first day, we just plugged in and were ready to go,” says Kramer. “Songs like ‘Suits Me Just Fine’ and ‘Bad Lucky Baby,’ the second time we played them are the takes you hear on the record.” Also adding his talents to the album is Powderfinger vocalist Bernard Fanning, who penned the Free-indebted “No Such Time,” which Kramer calls “one of the greatest gifts we’ve ever received.” Here, the singer takes Apple Music through <i>Easier Said Than Done</i>, track by track. <b>“Don’t Take It to Heart”</b> “It’s a really happy, upbeat song, but then the lyrics are pretty fucking miserable. It’s about being in a ‘situationship’ and knowing where it’s going and that the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train, but doing it anyway. As positive as you might like to think about something, this is never gonna work. It’s about the back and forth in your head.” <b>“Something’s Gotta Give”</b> “There’s no real depth there. It’s about as deep as a soup bowl. [<i>Laughs</i>] I was just trying to write something that sounds like you’re pissed off, because the music sounds pissed off. That was during a Midnight Oil phase, and there’s a great anger to the early Oils stuff, this real tension that’s on the front foot and doesn’t let up.” <b>“Bad Luck Baby, Bye Bye”</b> “It’s about [just wanting] to play rock ’n’ roll music, and all the things you’ve got to do to go along with that. All the people that tell you what you’ve got to do. Well, if I was gonna do that, I’d slick my hair back, put a suit on, and get a nice $120k-a-year-paying job, sit there and keep my mouth shut. But that’s not what we want to do. I want to play in a rock ’n’ roll band, and we want to do it on our term. When we stick true to what we’re doing, that’s when you get the best shit.” <b>“It’s What It’s”</b> “I sat down and went, ‘What is my life as it stands?’ So that’s sort of a snapshot into my life in 2023 or something like that. It’s as honest as honest can get. Don’t ask me about it because I fucking don’t like talking about it [<i>laughs</i>]!” <b>“One Last Dance”</b> “It’s about knowing that [a relationship is] done. With the lines ‘Maybe we could have had it all’ it’s like, you’re still wondering, but you know it’s done. It’s a little bit indulgent musically, trying to just write shit that I think is cool.” <b>“Suits Me Just Fine”</b> “It’s a drinking song. This was written in 2013 or 2014. The Thornlie Tavern had a great old jukebox that had Daddy Cool and Night Ranger and AC/DC, and we used to go down there, have a couple of shots of sambuca and just put some money in the jukebox and drink and dance. The second [verse is] about drinking in another pub in Thornlie, Lakers Tavern. They’re both great pub. It’s a very simplistic song, really.” <b>“All Over Town”</b> “Lyrically, I was just trying to find something that matched the music and have lines that I personally think sound cool: ‘Give me some fertile land, I’ll reap just what I sow.’ That’s kind of clever, but it sounds cool! There are so many great songs where, if you try to think about them literally, it makes absolutely no fucking sense. But, if you just listen to it as a package with the lyrics and the melody and the music itself, it suits perfectly and it creates this thing unto itself.” <b>“No Such Time”</b> “It fully fits the SRB vibe. I haven’t even asked [Bernard Fanning] about [the meaning]. As soon as I heard that song I was like, ‘I feel it.’ When you’re sitting there and the guide vocal is Bernard, it’s one of the most daunting things ever. When I texted him the final [version] and saw the three dots on my phone coming back, I had to sit down. Thankfully he loved it.” <b>“Lay It on Me”</b> “This is what I would call a disco song. I’d actually like to hear it remixed by a techno DJ. Get us in the nightclubs in Ibiza! Lyrically, I think people will think it’s about rooting [sex], but it’s not. It’s kind of a reverse double entendre, and I’m not gonna say what it is about. I’m gonna leave a bit to the imagination. But if you’ve ever engaged in it, I reckon you’ll know what it’s about.” <b>“F**k You, Pay Me”</b> “I came up with that line, or maybe I stole it from Ray Liotta [in <i>GoodFellas</i>], and then had to build a song around it, which was easy to do. Because in our industry, sometimes you’re waiting on invoices for what seems like year. I think that’s something everybody can relate to, and I did want to have one of those songs that’s like this isn’t a personal thing, this is something for the people.” <b>“We’ve Got Plans Tonight”</b> “One of my favorite things to do is get on the piss and watch old Little Richard and Elvis video. I’ve got bloody varicose veins in my leg from how hard I tap my foot! It just gets me that excited. [I thought] it’d be cool as a nod to [Little Richard’s] ‘Long Tall Sally’ that Sally’s still getting around in 2025.” <b>“One of These Nights (I’ll Be Gone)”</b> .

via Apple Music

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